N&C Midwest - MAY!!!

We've spent the better part of the day making more critter cages in different sizes.  Also up potted extra tomatoes and peppers in case I can need them as late plantings or maybe sell at the farmers market.  It has rained off and on all stinking day so indoor garage and basement activities kept us very busy. Now its time for sandwiches and beer!

Not much gardening today but I do plan to pick the first radishes for a salad for tonight's dinner!

Even though the weather isn't look great for this week, I went ahead and put out quite a few of my crops. I don't think the cold weather will kill them, probably just won't see much growth. This weekend I moved a couple bush tomato and bush cucumber seedlings that I'd started inside to the containers on the patio. I also moved the vining cucumbers that I'd started inside to their squares and planted pole bean seeds. I was at Lowes and they had a veggie plant sale - 2/$5 for seedlings about 6 or so inches tall. I hunted through the containers and found a sweet 100 tomato that had two stems and a jumbo jalapeno with two stems. Very, very carefully separated the two plants and ended up with 4/$5.    My husband acted like I was a bit crazy, LOL.

I planted lettuce, snap peas, carrots, and radish seeds a few weeks ago, as well as some onion seedlings. Next weekend - weather dependent - I'll assess anything that didn't make it and add some more tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers. Our neighborhood farmers market starts on Memorial Day weekend and they always have good tomato and pepper seedlings, so I might just wait for that... even though patience is not my strength!

You know you have a problem when you didn't get those 3 squares of radishes planted before dark, so you go do it with a head lamp on.

jmsieglaff wrote:You know you have a problem when you didn't get those 3 squares of radishes planted before dark, so you go do it with a head lamp on.

Or your daughter and son in law give you spot lights (4) on stands for your birthday so you can continue shredding leaves under the lights so you can fill up your compost bin before it rains.

yolos wrote:

jmsieglaff wrote:You know you have a problem when you didn't get those 3 squares of radishes planted before dark, so you go do it with a head lamp on.

Or your daughter and son in law give you spot lights (4) on stands for your birthday so you can continue shredding leaves under the lights so you can fill up your compost bin before it rains.

Priceless!!  Hope you got those leaves shredded!

LOL!  And how many of you guys laughed at our posts about slug hunting at midnight in our bathrobes & slippers w/ a flashlight?

Oh, us gardeners are a funny bunch!

4 yr olds are great helpers!  My daughter is almost 4 and she loves to water and did help me plant some flower seeds and veggies.  My 20 mo. old son on the other hand throws my MM out of my boxes.

LM, your garlic and strawberries look great!

So far so good this month.  Ive got 8 of my 9 beds planted.  I ran out of string so need to grab some more to finish my grid.  One of my new beds, I dont know what happened.  I dont know if I got a bad bag of compost or what but it is full of grass.  I planted herbs in that bed so I dont know how they'll do.

My new beds.  Asparagus (by seed) in the 2 x 8 bed and potatoes in an old galvanized tub.  My first year doing potatoes so far so good.  They're sprouting green.


Strawberries bought from the local seed store with other misc. plants.  You can kind of see the grass in my herb bed behind it.


And Ive got the bed on the right done, still need to finish the left.  Its a mess. 

Well, it looked like Spring was coming early, no frost since mid April, until 4 days ago. 3 nights in a row with frost (av. last frost 5-15). But, the bright side is that starting tomorrow night, lows in the 50's. Tomatoes going out!

GG

Got my hollyhocks and sunflowers in the ground. The sunflowers are the first flowers I have successfully started from seeds. We shall see if they are dead by the weekend! Tomatoes, peppers, and carrot seeds to go in by this weekend.

GG

I have spent most of the weekend outside; mainly in the flower beds, cleaning up, mulching......... but have planted herbs(rosemary, parsley, thyme, lemon thyme, sweet basil, purple basil and lemon basil) as well as got the peppers and tomotoes planted.

Just a bit of heat and everything has taken off.  The only thing not up right now is the lima beans because I didn't plant them until last week.  Amazing what a little more heat can do.  Whew.

Wow.  The deluge has arrived.  My goodness it is incredible the amount of rain in the last 18 hours.  Glad I don't have a gauge, I'd probably want to buy a canoe. 

However, the potatoes are loving this and the lima beans are up.  Everything is so lush now.  Thank God for MM because we don't end up with standing water or mud.   

+1 GreatGranny!  We have been DUMPED on!!!  We are still in a Flash Flood Watch until 9 tonight.  BUT my garden is LOVING it!  Before the rain started we had 3 days of 90's, with no wind to cool it off (almost unheard of in SD), just blazing sun to dry everything out.  I tried to keep on top of the watering, and didn't lose anything that I can tell, but the rain was welcome - at least the first few inches of it.  Going out now to see if anything new has popped up, or been washed away.

Update - The beans are up, the chives are now in FULL bloom, and all my little pepper plants are looking better than ever. I am out sitting on the back patio enjoying the coolness before the next deluge hits later today.

The only thing about all of this rain that I am concerned about is the fact that my basement is starting to seep.  Old bath towel time and dehumidifier and fans.  Ugh.  I hate this part of summer.  Back to the hardware store for more dry lock.  Thought that stuff was supposed to seal forever.    

But my garden is looking great.

My basement may start to seep today - one spot of the carpet gets damp. Definitely time for the dehumidifier!

My asparagus has popped up and growing.  Potatoes are doing good.  I did the bottom 6 in. with MM and then did straw on top of that.  We've been eating salads from the lettuce that is growing but my spinach and cabbage has/ is bolting before we got any.  SS peas and lincoln peas are flowering.  Everything else is growing.

I wanted to get more flower seeds started for my bees but Im running out of time.

Rain?? What's that? Seriously, a flooded basement does not sound like fun.